Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock Review

By Christopher Null

Long before The Truman Show, Peter Weir put together this sleek yet frustrating story of four prep-school girls who vanish without a trace from an Australian geological site, Hanging Rock. Set in 1900, it's a corseted tale of weird spiritualism and repressed emotions common in the era -- all scored by Zamfir and his pan flute(!) Based on a novel, not a true story, it still recalls later films like Heavenly Creatures, which actually pulled off this kind of moody, brooding tale of wierd teenage girls with more aplomb.